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“Yeah, I stopped at the house and Ben’s dad filled me in. Said you guys were down here at the station.” Tim wiped a hand down his face, “What the hell is going on?”
Mark jerked his head towards the back seat of his club cab. “Park your truck, we’ll fill you in...”
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LANE WAS RELIEVED TOfeel that Desi was warming up, she was no longer shivering, and her teeth stopped chattering five minutes ago. That meant he could finally get out of the position he’d been sitting in for the past half hour, gently, he placed her on the tent floor and covered her with the blanket before ducking out of the tent with their clothes.
Once outside, standing as naked as the day he was born he realized just how cold it had gotten when the steam started rising off his bare skin. Quickly he tossed their clothes on the bushes nearest to the fire then dashed back into the tent and dove under the foil blanket. Desi sighed and nestled closer to him as he pulled her into the circle of his arms.
He was laying there with his eyes closed, thinking about how quickly things had changed between them, (too fast as far as he was concerned) when he heard something walking around outside of the tent over the sound of the crackling fire. Opening his eyes, he saw a shadow from the fire playing against the tent walls. Judging from the size of it, it was a bear and he felt impending doom in the pit of his stomach; the only weapon they had was the flashlight. He covered Desi’s mouth and nudged her.
Desi was instantly awake the second his hand touched her mouth. It took a moment before the fogginess in her brain started to clear and for it to register, where and who she was with. She shot Lane a questioning look.
Next to her ear, he whispered, “Shhh... There’s a bear outside.”
She followed his gaze to the tent wall and saw it for herself. She tried desperately to remain still as a statue as the fear swelled within, she really did...
Chapter 17
There were three thingsAbbi discovered as she awoke with a jerk. She still had a splitting headache; she was stiff from laying on a cement floor for God knew how long and she had a metallic taste in her mouth. She raised a shaky hand to her lips and felt either dried blood or drool. She was betting it was a mixture of both. Pushing herself up, she swiped her hair out of her face and looked around to the window. The full moon was shining in all it’s splendor. That meant that she had only been out of it for the day or a few days; she didn’t know which. What she did know, was that she needed to get the hell out of there.
Getting her feet under herself was another matter. Somehow, she managed to do so and stood hunched over on shaky legs. Some bride she was going to make, she thought and immediately wished she hadn’t. Ben must be going out of his mind with worry... and Anna. She felt the sting of tears rise in her throat but swallowed them down. With renewed determination, she hobbled over to the window, her only escape route from this hell.
Only it wasn’t, because it was covered in chicken wire on the outside. And if that wasn’t bad enough a set of bars stared at her from the inside. That meant she needed a plan. Glancing around the dimly lit room, she saw a desk with a wooden chair sitting behind it. She could break one of the legs off she supposed and use it as a weapon, that was, if anyone thought to come check on her. She glanced at the only door of the room, the one she’d came flying through and that was when she realized something. The door had stood open... inward.
Scurrying over to the desk, she started pulling open drawer after drawer in hopes of finding anything flat. Triumphantly she held up a flat end screwdriver. If anyone was outside in the hall listening, they would think she was nuts when she muttered to herself, “You’re mine baby,” as she stalked over to the one thing that kept her contained within the room... the door.
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“WHERE SHOULD WE PARK?” Ava asked, as Ben slowed down near a bend in the road.
They were five hundred feet from the emu ranch and Ben didn’t want to chance getting any closer.
“Here,” he said, pulling the car to a stop and shutting it off. “We will walk the rest of the way.”
All four of them got out of the vehicle and softly closed the doors. Gathering at the hood of the car, Luke glanced at all of them. “What’s the plan?” he asked.
